Organs-on-chips are a promising means to test drug efficacy and interactions without the need for animal testing. However, there has been little thought into how multiple organ systems should be integrated to study multi-organ physiology. This invention addresses key issues in the measurement and control of multiple organ-on-chip systems.
The measurement systems, microfabricated devices, and analytical and modeling techniques developed over the past decade to instrument and control cancer, immune, yeast, and cardiac cells provide a unique opportunity to address some of the most fundamental issues in organ interactions and drug responses. This problem clearly requires a coordinated, interdisciplinary, high-technology approach, such as understanding the interaction between lung function and organ oxygenation, neuroimmune interactions, response to neural injury, cardiac arrhythmias, and development of new multimodal therapies. To date, there have been no demonstrations of methods for controlling and analyzing multiple organs-on-chips, particularly in a manner that allows a single design of controller and analyzer to be dynamically configured for a particular application or analysis.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.